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Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve. Episode two hundred and forty four Aftermath.

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In our last episode, Cortes finally
conquered Tenochticlon. For all practical purposes,

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the empire that was Old Mexico was
finished before the final siege even began.

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It took several months, but Cortes
finally beat and starved the Mexico into

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submission. The downside, of course, was that in doing so, Cortes

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had all but destroyed the Venice of
the West, the seeming city of Tenoshti

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Klan he had hoped to turn over
to Charles the Fifth Intact. Now there

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was little to turn over but rubble
and corpses, and therein lies the problem.

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All of Cortes's decision making turned on
the goal of getting fast, movable

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wealth that could easily be sent to
Spain to justify Cortes's entire conquest. Now

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it seemed that this was an ephemeral
vision at best. So what to do?

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In this episode we find Cortes trying
to regroup again and create something lasting

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in New Spain. Cortez had conquered
an empire he had used well his talents

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for flattery, for courtesy, for
eloquence, for swift decision making, for

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improvisation, for deviousness, and for
sudden changes of plans. His will and

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courage and adversity had always been decisive. He had used terror coldly and effectively.

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His ambition to achieve something astonishing should
have been satisfied. Cortes had also

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done all this with men of his
own, choosing these men would be fiercely

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loyal to Cortes in the aftermath,
especially given the reality that they depended on

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Cortes to get some of the largess
they had been promised. They understood that

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if some new governor swept in now, it probably wouldn't get anything. Yet,

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something essential was missing. Neither Cortez
nor anyone else knew what Charles the

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Fifth thought of their conquest. It
had been two years since cortes men had

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set off for Spain. In August
fifteen twenty one. Cortes wrote a quick

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note home that he had conquered the
Mexica, which wasn't exactly true at the

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time, but that note only reached
Spain in March of fifteen twenty two,

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nearly six months later. Cortes didn't
know this, but Charles's court had vacillated

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wildly over the New World in the
past two years. Men like Diego Valasquez,

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who had been so slighted by Cortes, still wanted to be more reasonable

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in their approach. They wanted to
establish a firm and comienda system that would

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provide insistent harvests of tobacco and other
cash crumps. The other faction saw the

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New World as a sort of unlimited
atm Their goal was to transfer the wealth

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of the New World to the Old
World full stop. They had no real

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plan after that. Luckily for Cortes
and unluckily for Velasquez, this latter group

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was in ascension. In fifteen twenty
two, the Spanish court once again looked

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across the ocean and saw the New
World as an unlimited land of milk and

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honey of romance for conquering. This
vision of the New World favored conquistadors like

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Cortes, men with big ambitions,
willing to take huge risks for the potential

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of huge rewards. Of course,
what Cortes did not know was that YEurope

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at present was dealing with another major
issue, the Reformation. Martin Luther and

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Ulrich Zwingli were in full swing at
the moment, and so Charles didn't have

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much time to devote to pondering the
new world. Moreover, this was still

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the age of Charles versus Francis in
northern Italy. The Battle of Pavia was

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now only three years away, so
Charles had a lot on his plate,

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leaving Cortes alone for his first year
as sort of de facto Mexican emperor between

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fifteen twenty two and fifteen twenty three. This year was marked by several phenomenon

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one the physical recovery of the Europeans
member many had been wounded. Two,

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the beginnings of the reconstruction of tenosht
Clan number three, a ruthless search for

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gold number four, the end of
traditional Mexican religious practices at number five the

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colonization of other parts of Old Mexico
outside of Tenoshticlan. Cortez worked quickly in

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fifteen twenty two to establish himself at
Kyakon, the old Palace of the Emperor.

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That is where he decided to set
up his temporary government of Mexico.

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So far as the administration of Old
Mexico was concerned, Cortez decided he would

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stick to the established model or at
least he would try. Essentially, Cortes

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would let the existing non Mexican nobles
govern, and then he would govern and

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through them. But this could only
work so well because the reality is that

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the old Mexican system was based on
military dominance. So for the tribute system

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to function, Spanish military dominance had
to replace Mexican military dominance. Cortez couldn't

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just leave a void and walk away. But for the moment, Cortez faced

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other more immediate problems. The most
critical of these was the food shortage.

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As a result of the siege.
There essentially was no corn crop in fifteen

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twenty three in the Central Valley,
or at the very least the corn crop

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that year was a fraction of what
it had been years prior. Cortez responded

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to this problem pretty simply and brutally. The mexic Ica, those who had

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survived, would suffer the most.
Cortez would feed his men, then his

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Indian allies, and the conquered last. Cortes behaved very much like an absolute

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monarch in these early years. Frankly, there was no reason for him not

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to absent any information from Europe.
Cortes had little choice but to continue doing

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what he felt was right. He
began at least trying to rebuild Tenushtiklan,

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though at least initially in fifteen twenty
two, he and his lieutenants firmly believed

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the site would have to be abandoned
sooner rather than later. And here Cortez

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made some use of the imprisoned q
Adam Mac. Like he had with Montezuma,

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Cortez paraded the deposed emperor out when
it suited his purposes. He tried

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to use q Adam Mac to get
his people to prepare the water pipes essential

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for bringing drinking water into the inner
city. At the very least, he

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hoped that the Mexica would clear the
streets of debris and dead body. They

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did to some extent. Cortez also
tried to get people to live in the

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less destroyed northern suburbs of the city. He built a new harbor at Texcoco

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to try and reinvigorate trade. Like
with the cleanup efforts, these had at

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best a middling effect. And then
there was the gold. Cortez was relentless.

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Where was the gold? In part
this was out of pure greed,

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but in part it was out of
necessity. The king's royal officials, once

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the dust settled and tenosht Klan was
in Spanish hands, were equally as relentless.

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They wanted the gold. Two Charles
got a fifth of whatever the conquistadors

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found, and you can bet your
bottom dollar he was going to get it.

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Remember, he needed to pay all
those creditors who paid his way to

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the Holy Roman throne. So Cortez
summoned his leading prisoners and put them to

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the question, where were they hiding
the gold? By and large these men

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did not know, and if they
did know, they struggled to explain their

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answers to the Europeans. You see
a lot of the luxury goods of old

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Mexico. The gold, the silver, the feathers, the jade, the

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amber. All these things were in
the warehouses of the long distance merchants.

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The Spanish simply failed to understand that
trade was quite advanced in Old Mexico.

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Their bias hid the truth from them, to their detriment. This will not

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be the last time in our story
that people allow their biases to cloud their

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judgment and in the end find themselves
harmed by their own blinders. None of

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this helped Qadamak who was tortured to
reveal the location of his allegedly hidden gold.

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Q Adamak was tied to a stake
at his feet, doused in oil,

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and then set on fire. The
last Emperor of Mexico tried to strangle

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himself on the pole due to the
pain. In the end, one of

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his close advisers, up next for
the same treatment, begged q Adamok to

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say something, anything, to get
him off the hook. Q Ademak only

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sneered, looked daggers at him,
and then said, quote, am I

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enjoying some kind of delight or bath? Quote? A few days later,

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Cortez had him hanged. The consequence
of all this brutality was unsatisfying for everyone

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involved. The new sum available was
around one hundred and eighty five thousand and

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two hundred thousand pasos worth of gold
and silver. The crowns fifth was set

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at thirty seven thousand pasos, and
Cortez took another twenty six thousand and his

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fifth. That left around one hundred
and twenty thousand pasos to be divided amongst

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the remaining seven hundred and fifty men. That, if you do the math,

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is a paltry one hundred and sixty
pasos per men. Given all that

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these men had been through over the
past several years, I think anyone would

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say it had not been worth it. Those saddles made of gold, well,

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I guess not. Of course,
there were other spoils. There were

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slaves and some jewels. But in
the end, suffice it to say that

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those who signed up to go with
Cortes back in fifteen nineteen fifteen twenty one

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did not get the riches they had
been promised. And in case you're wondering,

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no, Cortes was unwilling to even
consider dipping into his fifth to compensate

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them. Desperate to keep his rest
of men busy, Cortes decided he would

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send some of them to form new
colonies. The emphasis on new conquests shows

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the frontier spirit of these conquistadors.
Now. Also after the conquest of Tenostclan,

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Cortes faced the most serious challenge to
his authority since the coming of Nevadez.

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Back in Vita Cruz, Cristo ball
Tapia stepped off a boat fresh from

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Espanola. He had orders in his
possession to take over New Spain, and

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these orders came directly from the court
at Castile. Tapia reached what is today

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Mexico in December fifteen twenty one.
He sent Cortes a letter, but Cortes

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knew of his arrival long before receiving
it. Tapia met with some of Cortes's

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lieutenants on December the twenty fourth,
fifteen twenty one. Those who met with

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Tapia were polite but very determined.
They looked at his orders. Several of

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them even kissed them. They were
from the Courton Castile after all, and

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then talked quietly amongst themselves for a
moment. Then they came back and gave

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Tapia a firm no, no,
thank you. Tapia's orders appointed him governor

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and told him that they understood that
these orders came from Charles the fifth.

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However, they told their new ostensible
governor that he didn't understand anything about the

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situation in Mexico. He might have
legal training, but he was totally unprepared

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for the challenges posed in this new
Spain. No, they said they would

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not obey his orders. Instead,
they would write an appeal to the King,

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and in the meantime, Cortes,
in their minds at least, remained

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governor. Tapia seemed ready to accept
the situation. But then several men from

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Navadez his expedition approached Tapia with their
own letters. We do not have these

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today, but whatever was in them
convinced Tapia to make another go of it.

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He said he would remain in Mexico
as a private citizen. But by

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now Sandoval, Cortes's faithful servant,
was on the scene and he was just

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a bit firmer with this would be
governor. He understood that whether Tapia remained

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as a private citizen or as a
member of the government, him simply remaining

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in Mexico would be a thorn in
Cortes's side that would not go away.

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So Sandival went to Tapia and told
him point blank, you have to go.

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Tapia tried to delay, arguing he
needed to sell some slaves. Sandoval

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told him, no, I'll sell
the slaves for you, but you need

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to leave now. When Tapia again
prevaricated, Sandoval told him, look,

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buddy, you're either getting on a
ship or you're going back to Santo Domingo

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in a canoe. Your choice.
Tapia chose the ship, and Santoval stayed

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on the shore watching the whole time
until the ship receded into the horizon.

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Once again, the loyalty Cortes had
instilled in his friends saved him back in

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technost Klan. Cortes also decided he
hadn't quite fulfilled the wonder lust in his

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gut. He began a series of
local campaigns, the most significant of which

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were all to the east. This
one campaign alone took Cortes most of fifteen

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twenty two. Cortes would later complain
that this campaign added an important and fertile

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region to New Spain, that he
was never compensated for all his expenses.

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We need to take that comment with
a grain of salt. Cortes would spend

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much of his final years telling anyone
who would listen how he had done more

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than his fair share for the Spanish
crown and had not been compensated. There

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may or may not have been any
truth to it. One thing is really

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interesting about these campaigns, however,
Sure Cortes took the usual Taxican and Texcocan

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warriors and lords with him, but
he also took a large number of Mexica

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lords and warriors. Evidently, with
the fight for Technoshtiklan over, Cortez felt

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he could turn the other cheek.
Moreover, by early fifteen twenty two,

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Cortez had clearly determined to rebuild Tenosht
Clan. That decision was controversial. Frankly,

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it was controversial partly because for Cortez
it was a complete about face in

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policy. Cortez had previously said Tenosht
Clan would be abandoned and anyone caught there

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would be hanged. Then by February
fifteen twenty two, Cortez completely changed his

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mind. That winter rebuilding was already
underway. According to our sources, by

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the spring of fifteen twenty three,
there were four d thousand Mexicans working to

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rebuild technosh Declon, an exaggeration,
of course, how much, though,

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well that's hard to say. Very
quickly dynosh Declon began to take shape once

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more. It helped that the Mexica
took to European construction methods like fish to

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water, from nails and pulleys to
candles and steel knives. They immediately grasped

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the advantages of it all. While
the Mexica knew about the wheel, they

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had never conceived of the wheelbarrow.
And when mules arrived from Spain, well

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that just about changed everything. Like
I said in the last episode, Old

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Mexico was gone. It is almost
like turning a page. New Spain was

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here to stay. Yet, speaking
of Old Spain, Cortes still had no

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message from Castile, he had no
orders from Charles the fifth, and frankly,

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he had no idea what was going
on in Europe. We need to

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remember that during the early modern period, the fastest news could travel was the

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fastest a horse could ride or a
ship could sail. Men like Cortes had

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to make decisions in the dark.
So Cortes sent more letters home, desperate

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for news. He also sent home
a massive treasure, about fifty thousand pasos

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in gold. Most of this was
in the form of gifts to various churches

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and to Bishop Fonseca himself. Remember, during the early years of the United

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Spanish monarchy, this bishop and other
churchmen were the administration of the empire.

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By favoring them, Cortes hoped to
get a little love back himself. Now,

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sadly, one of Cortes's treasure fleets
was attacked by a French pirate by

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the name of Jeanne Flory. Between
the Azores and Spain, many of Cortes's

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gifts were lost. While the incidents
would spark a conversation back in Spain about

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the need for treasure convoys, which
would actually become the dominant mode of transporting

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treasure from the New World to the
Old World. In short order, those

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discussions came too late to help Cortez. One of his three ships did manage

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to escape the pirates clutches and reached
Spain on November eighth. Now things in

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Spain were very different than they had
been in fifteen nineteen. News of the

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fall of technosoty Klan reached Europe on
March the first, fifteen twenty two.

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Hope Adrian, though distracted by his
scheduled meeting with Martin Luther, issued a

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papal bull reminding everyone that missionaries needed
to be a major part of the expeditions

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to Mexico. It would be his
final word on the subject. Adrian's paypalsy

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was as painful as it was brief. As for Charles, he seems to

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have been interested in the news from
New Spain. On a visit to England

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that June, Charles showed King Henry
the Eighth some of the initial treasures Cortes

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sent him from Mexico. The Emperor
then continued on to valladaalid in Spain,

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where he would remain the next seven
years, the longest period he would stay

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in one place. One of Charles's
first decisions upon arrival in Spain was to

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appoint a special committee to advise him
on Cortes. Crucially, the conservative Bishop

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Fonseca was not a member of this
council, and the committee was blunt in

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its findings and its decision. Cortes
would be acquire it to repay Velasquez for

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what he had loaned him for the
fleet back in fifteen eighteen, but beyond

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that and he disputes the two men
had were to be settled in the courts,

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and Velasquez was told point blank not
to interfere with Cortes's affairs any longer.

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It certainly helped Cortes's case that Mexican
gold was already by winter fifteen twenty

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two funding King Charles's Italian wars.
Charles happily received the committee's findings, and

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on October eleventh, fifteen twenty two, he formally appointed Cortez as the Governor

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of New Spain. That same order
also fixed salaries for Cortes and all the

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other officials in New Spain, Cortes
would get three hundred sixty six thousand monavetis

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per year. Foot soldiers would get
a little less eleven thousand, eight hundred

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and thirty two, a very exact
figure for the time, but much to

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Cortes's chagrin. Other new royal officials
would get five hundred thousand and ten modavides

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per year. Cortez, in the
end, if you look at the salaries,

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he got a little more than some
other cunquistadors who had discovered really small

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islands in the Caribbean. All in
all, I mean, if we're just

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looking at land here, it certainly
seems like he deserved a bigger share,

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but he didn't get it. It
took, as you can guess, forever

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for this news to reach the New
World. One group was sent to Mexico

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to give Cortez the good news.
Another went to Cuba to give Governor Velasquez

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the bad news. In the meantime, before the news got there, Cortes

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continued to work on New Spain.
His biggest challenge was how to set up

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some kind of economic system in New
Spain that would encourage cooperation between the Native

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Indians and the arriving Europeans. To
his credit, Cortes firmly believed that the

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Mexica were much more sophisticated, much
more intelligent than the native Tainos in the

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Caribbean, and therefore, initially,
at least he wanted to avoid a strict

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and comiendas system. But in the
end he caved to the demands of his

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men. They had risked their lives
for him and for what turned out to

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be a poultry amount of gold.
They wanted to be paid, and this

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time they wanted to be repaid with
lavish estates and men and women to work

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them. So in the end Cortez
assigned different Mexican lords to different Europeans,

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granted the latter the former's lands,
and told everyone to get to work.

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Cortes maybe wanted to do the right
thing at first, but in the end

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he's still a conquistador. The Spanish
quickly developed legal systems with the express intent

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of ensnaring the Mexicans and using legal
apparati to make them work, but the

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Mexica quickly mastered litigation. They took
the Spanish to court all the time,

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consistently charging them with all sorts of
breaches of the law. Their favorite was

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neglecting their religious responsibilities, which,
given the men who came to the New

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World to make their fortunes, was
probably an easy charge to make stick.

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Despite some of his initial hesitation,
Cortez quickly took a keen interest in seeing

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the system succeed and in himself being
a part of that success. He allocated

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himself, by his own estimate,
a million souls for his own lands.

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He also worked to import cows,
sheep, and pigs with the intent of

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making Mexico agriculturally productive in a European
sense. To keep the people pacified,

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Cortes imported mendicant friars to convert the
population of Mexico and mass Cortes thought that

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Christianity could keep the people of Mexico
docile and under the Spanish thumb. He

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wasn't necessarily wrong, and under Cortes, fifty years of dominant nation by the

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religious orders began, mostly the Dominicans
and Augustinians, But as we're going to

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see, it didn't last forever.
Cortez also wanted to ensure that he could

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defend his new province, so he
sought to build the first factories for gunpowder

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and artillery manufacture in the New World. On September thirteenth, fifteen twenty three,

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those emissaries from Spain finally reached Cortez
and informed him he was now legally

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the governor of New Spain. He
was jubilant. Cortez had faced obstacles too

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numerous account in his quest to conquer
Mexico, but through a combination of audacity,

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courage, ruthlessness, and downright good
luck, Cortez outlasted and overcame them

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all. A great grandson of Montezuma
later reflected on the level of change that

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swept Mexico between fifteen nineteen and when
he wrote in fifteen eighty seven. Culturally

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the landscape had been transformed. The
conquering Europeans had by then covered the land

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with monasteries, churches, shrines,
and parishes. By the late sixteenth century,

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Mexico was a Catholic kingdom, and
it remains a Catholic country today.

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The turning point for those interested came
in fifteen thirty one, when the Virgin

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Mary was supposed to have appeared with
dark skin, beginning the cult of the

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Brown Virgin. Or if like me, you attended Catholic services. Growing up.

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You might know her as the Virgin
of Guadalupe. She was the first

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divine hero heroin for the New Kingdom. She would not be the last.

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The landscape had also been transformed in
another very physical way. Historians estimate the

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population of Old Mexico in fifteen nineteen
as to be in the range of eight

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million people. In fifteen sixty,
the same region at a population of only

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two point six million, about a
quarter of what it had been. Through

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disease, mostly starvation, and war, the population of Old Mexico had been

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virtually wiped out. One historian I
read made a comparison that I think is

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particularly apt. Had Old Mexico's population
not plummeted like it did, the New

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Spain would have looked a lot more
like colonialism in India, where you had

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two distinct classes of people, the
ruling British and the native Indian population.

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Instead, in New Spain, what
we see is a relatively small group of

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immigrants, mostly men from Spain,
intermarrying with Native Mexicans to produce a new

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class of people. We're talking about
a very small number of Spaniards here.

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We're willing to make the journey to
Mexico, maybe around one hundred and fifty

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thousand, probably less. This is
a phenomenon we will talk about a lot

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more in future episodes, how the
ethnic makeup of different classes ultimately structured how

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whole nations design their economic and political
systems. But that is a story for

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another day. By fifteen ninety eight, we still have some records of the

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descendants of Montezuma living in poverty.
Marina Cortes, is crucial interpreter, lived

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on until fifteen fifty one. She
later married a Spaniard and had a daughter.

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She also had a son, but
his father was Heronan Cortes. As

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for the other main loser in all
this in terms of political winners and losers,

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poor old governor of Cuba, Diego
Velasquez, died in fifteen twenty four.

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A footnote in the history and story
of the man he did everything to

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stop. All of Cortez's main companions, by and large, died in Mexico.

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Navarez, after making his way back
to Cuba, took part in Ponce

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de Leon's voyage to Florida to find
the Fountain of Youth. Just about everyone

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who took part in that expedition,
he died horribly. As for Cortez well,

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as life continued on, he was
still under forty and fifteen twenty five,

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many might have wondered what the future
would hold for the man who conquered

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Old Mexico, But in any ways, his life was over. He had

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already hit his crescendo. Other men
like Francisco Pizaro would conquer other indigenous empires,

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but not Cortes. His conquistadordes were
over. Cortes tried to recapture some

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of the old glory by marching with
a large army to what is today Honduras.

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Few of his men survived and the
expedition accomplished nothing. Cortes returned to

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Technos Declan to find that the city
deteriorated in his absence. Throughout fifteen twenty

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six, Cortes tried to re establish
order, but he was just worn out.

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By March fifteen twenty eight, he
was on a ship bound for Spain.

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Charles the Fifth at first welcomed him
warmly. Later on, however,

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he would find his favorite conquistador but
a bit too much bravado. As you

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might remember from our episodes on Charles, Cortes was there in person during the

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Spanish failed attempt to recapture Tunisia from
the Ottoman Turks. Cortes famously wanted Charles

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to lead his men on what would
have been a sure suicide mission straight into

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the enemy defenses, insisting all the
while they could win. I mean,

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after all, he Cortes had attacked
larger numbers in one in Mexico, had

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he not. But the Ottomans were
not the Mexico. And this is just

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one example of how, in so
many ways Cortes struggled to find a place

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back in Europe. In the spring
of fifteen thirty, he decided he would

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return to Mexico. Arrived in Bettacruz
on July the fifteenth, fifteen thirty.

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He embarked on a few more expeditions
to the Pacific, searching for the rumored

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strait linking that ocean with the Caribbean
Sea. He never found it, mostly

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because you know, it doesn't exist. Past the prime of his life,

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in the fifteen forties, he decided
to call it quits and permanently return to

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Spain. He spent the last years
of his life alone with his family,

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increasingly consumed by his own legacy and
illusions of grandeur. He never felt that

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Charles or any of the Spanish nobility
gave him enough credit for what he had

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accomplished. He died on December second, fifteen forty seven. He left behind

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massive wealth, large family, and
a legend almost too great to fathom.

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I think the word that best encapsulates
Cortes is audacity. Cortes was a gambler

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00:37:14.679 --> 00:37:21.360
to the very end. Time and
time again, he was outnumbered, out

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gunned, and often outmaneuvered. Yet
surrender was a word he didn't understand.

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He was the epitome of an age
that valued courage and risk taking, and

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he remains today the ultimate conquistador.
Before we turn to the Inca next week

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and the aforementioned Frenziescopizaro, I want
to leave you with Cortes's own words,

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but I think some up how he
thought about himself. In fifteen twenty four,

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Cortez sent a model silver cannon to
Charles the Fifth. The silver,

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00:38:09.679 --> 00:38:20.880
fittingly came from Montezuma's own minds.
On it, Cortes inscribed the following directed

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to Charles quote, this was born
without equal. I am without a second

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in serving you. You are without
equal in the world